Yesterday, I saw an anti-New York Yankees rant in the diary column here - gloating over the Yankees losing to the Mets. One comment ended thusly:
"Rooting against the Yankees is the Kossack way to follow baseball."
That, to me, says something unbearably sad about the way hate has become legitimized in 21st century America.
It's one thing to root for your own team - to exhort them on, to urge them to their own success. But to wish bad fortune upon others, to demonize them...
Is it the Kossack way to hurl curses at Emmanuel Goldstein, while Big Brother looms in the distance? Is it the Kossack way to give in to mindless hate, to demonize those who support a team you may dislike?
As for the "perfect Bushite team" ... last year, there was a day I will cherish. For some reason, on that day, the Vice President was in the House that Ruth Built, and when the seventh inning stretch came, the image of the Vice President was put up on the giant color DiamondVision screen.
And the crowd booed.
The "perfect Bushite" Yankee Stadium crowd jeered the Vice President until his image was no longer on the screen.
I'll lay a nickel that if you rounded up five Yankee fans, three of them would be Kossacks at heart. Kossacks like myself. People who will, can, and do stand by your sides to face the oncoming nightmare of America under the Bush dynasty.
These are the fans you have been told it's right to hate. This is the team you've been encouraged to demonize.
And in the Yankees' defeat, the haters have been enabled, empowered, to the point where any amount of sadism is acceptable. Why not? They're the Yankees!
And before anyone says it's just sports ... what happens in sports can easily bleed out to society at large. Look at the effect of Jackie Robinson. Or Joe Louis. Or Hank Aaron.
I see people luxuriating in hate ... whether it be someone wearing a "Yankee Hater" hat, or someone participating in an anti-gay rally, or a dozen people being thrown out of their place of worship for opposing the President, while a cheer rises up among their peers...
Hate becomes legitimate. Emmanuel Goldstein lives, and Big Brother's power increases, because if there were not an enemy to focus upon, then the people might be tempted to look inward, towards themselves, for what is wrong with society.
And, lest we forget, the time may come for any of us - or all of us - to become the targets of that irrational hate.
"You lost; get over it. You don't have the right to complain." It sounds glorious to be able to say that to a Yankee fan, doesn't it?
Doesn't sound so great when it's a Republican member of Congress smacking down the Democrats, does it?